This invention is directed to a technique for monitoring individuals reading a magazine and, more particularly, to determining which pages of an open magazine are examined by the reader and which are quickly skipped over.
It is important for publishers and advertisers to know which pages in a magazine are looked at attentively by a reader (used below interchangeably with "person" and "individual"). The word "magazine" is used herein to refer to any publication which when opened and placed flat on a surface presents a left page and a right page to the reader. It is well known that in the course of perusing a magazine, the attention of a reader will be attracted to certain pages and not at all to others. If an accurate and reliable method were available for determining whether the reader lingers on a given page, this information would be representative of the attraction to the reader of the contents of that particular page. Thus, for example, if an article appears on a given page, a measurement could be made by analyzing the extent to which a person's attention is drawn to that particular page. If such measurements indicate that the page does not draw the preferred degree of attention, then the caption of the article, for example, could be changed so that it becomes a stronger magnet for pulling the reader' s attention to the article. Likewise, if an advertisement were to be placed on a given page, this test could be utilized to measure whether the advertisement is merely noticed and then quickly skipped over, or whether it succeeds in having the reader pay it the desired degree of attention. Such a technique is an important measurement tool for determining whether whatever is printed or displayed in the magazine functions to provide the level of exposure to the readership of the magazine that one expects by going to the expense of printing it.
The primary technique currently available to determine the level of attention devoted by a reader to a particular article or advertisement involves the interview method. A reader is selected as a test subject and asked to read a particular magazine. After the magazine is read, the person is then asked a number of questions about what was just read. However, this method is heavily dependent on recall, honesty and objectivity. It, therefore, may not accurately reflect what the reader actually experienced.
Another disadvantage of this type of technique currently in use is the unnatural, abnormal environment into which the person is placed while taking the test. The environment varies from that which the person is normally accustomed to while reading a magazine. As a result, the person may be nervous or distracted. Consequently, the test results may not be an accurate measurement of that person's reactions to the magazine under normal conditions.
Another technique for obtaining this information utilizes eye movement monitoring equipment. As described in the article "Methods & Designs, Survey of Eye Movement Recording Methods" by Laurence R. Young and David Sheena in Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation 1975, Vol. 7(5), pages 397-427 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,657 issued Feb. 21, 1978, eye movement monitoring techniques bounce an infrared beam off the eye and detect the position of the reflected beam. Eye position is determined from the reflected beam position. Head position must be stabilized so that beam movement is due only to eye movement and not head movement. The eye position as indicated by the reflected beam is superimposed on an image of a magazine page. The page image can be obtained from a video camera aimed at the view displayed to the test subject.
Such equipment has several disadvantages. Firstly, equipment constraints are such that the head is pointing forward rather than downward in order to readily accommodate the infrared light source and the reflected beam detector. Therefore, a magazine would have to be placed vertically in front of a person. However, because this is not practical, slides are used to display the magazine pages. This requires extra slide equipment. Secondly, large size publications cannot be tested because of the limited angular range of eye rotation which eye movement monitoring equipment can measure (27"). Thirdly, persons wearing bifocals and contact lenses disperse the infrared beam. Fourthly, due to the unnatural head rigidity and head position required which is very different from that normally used for reading, a person may not read the text for as long a time as would be the case in the "real world". Fifth, eye movement monitoring equipment is relatively heavy and bulky and is, thus, not portable. Sixth, such equipment is visible to the person and can be obtrusive and distracting. Seventh, with the equipment being visible, the person must be told that a test is being performed which, consequently, may modify the reading habits and reactions to the magazine contents. All of these factors, singly or in combination, can detract from the accuracy of the test and are, therefore, preferably to be eliminated.
One other approach available for obtaining this information is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,847 issued Apr. 28, 1987 to the present inventor. It discloses a housing placed above a reading surface such as a desk top. The housing contains a lens aimable at the eyes of a test subject sitting at the desk, lenses aimed down at both sides of an open magazine, a mirror arrangement, and an optical image superimposition device for combining the eye and page images. This arrangement provides a significant improvement over the other techniques. However, because the housing is fixed in position above a reading surface on which the magazine is laid, the test subject is constrained in terms of having to sit at the desk. This reading position may be unnatural and uncomfortable to a particular test subject. Moreover, the level of discomfort can only increase the more time that must be spent in that position. Consequently, this approach does not adequately simulate conditions to which the individual would be subjected when reading a magazine under conditions considered normal. Because the testing conditions create an artificial situation, the test subject may produce commensurately inaccurate test results.